Plebs reunited

Plebs reunited

Kate Connolly (Germany's birthrate is the lowest in Europe, 21 September) points to more family-friendly policies to boost Germany's declining birthrate. We should support policies enabling women to combine careers with parenting. We should not panic over declining birthrates. Germany's population is currently near its all-time peak, and the UN projects a manageable decline to 1950s levels over the next century. Far from being a source of concern, such declines are essential if humanity is to live within ecological limits as the global south industrialises. Simon RossChief executive, Population Matters

• Sorry to disappoint Gavin Bryars and his fellow Goolies (Letters, 25 September), but my 2000 edition of Michael Frayn's Noises Off sets the last act of the play not in their home town but in the Municipal Theatre, Stockton-on-Tees.David WardTheatre by the Lake, Keswick, Cumbria

• When the cull of badgers gets under way in Gloucestershire (Report, 25 September), where will it start? Should somebody get a message to Bradley the Badger, the mascot of Forest Green Rovers, in Nailsworth, to keep his head down?Gordon WilliamsMalmesbury, Wiltshire

• Surely the only way to settle Andrew Mitchell's future is to hold a plebiscite (Report, 25 September).Russell HeatonRadcliffe-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire

• It is a shame that Metropolitan police officers did not show a similar degree of class consciousness during the 1984-85 miners' strike. The language used by Mr Mitchell reminded me of comments made by Met officers to my late father, his fellow miners and, yes, their wives and children, during this dispute.Dr S GreenDurham

• In 1908 a group of Ruskin students proudly formed the Plebs League in support of independent working-class education. The Plebs journal began publication in 1909, and continued until 1967, mainly under the auspices of the National Council of Labour Colleges. It is high time for us to take over again this Plebs tradition from the public-school oligarchs.RW DaviesSt Albans, Hertfordshire